Don't let the cheery name fool you. During its premiere at Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), “Festival” — Kim Lok-kyoung's slice-of-life family drama and first feature — warranted sniffles and tears all around. This incredible tranche de vie combines James Joyce-ian levels of reality with the irony endemic to Greek tragedy. Little wonder, then, that the film should win four awards in the Korean Fantastic Feature section that it competed in — including the Audience Award, a Distribution Award, Best Actor, and the prestigious Best Techcross Environmental Services Korean Fantastic Film.
“Festival” follows the humble story of Kyung-man (Ha Jun). Kyung-man is an unknown MC who goes the extra (and often humiliating) mile to take care of his perpetually ailing father and his younger sister, Kyung-mi (So Joo-yeon). When Kyung-man's father suddenly passes away, however, Kyung-man finds himself unable to pay the funeral bills all on his own… until he is offered a windfall assignment to MC a far-away birthday party during his father's funeral. Kyung-man leaves Kyung-mi alone to attend to the funeral hall, planning to come back in a couple of hours — when he finds, however, that things don't always go to plan. In this emotionally strenuous tale of love, loss, and loyalty, the siblings find that sometimes, in-person filial piety can look different from what is prescribed on-paper.
Within the screenplay, the film's strength lies in its black humor. Kyung-man must perform to make his commissioner smile, despite his own financial despair. Kyung-mi, on the other hand, must endure insufferable relatives who chastise her constantly for not mourning the “proper” way. The heart-wrenching psychological display puts both Ha Jun's and So Joo-yeon's acting to the test, but Ha Jun especially shines in this black comedy. From the beginning of the film — where he sleeps serenely by his father's hospital bed — to each added layer of his fake-happy, extroverted MC get-up — to the point in which he finally cracks, Ha Jun's utter and complete breakdown is impossible to look away from. He does not lay on the irony too thick, either; for while the layers of performance are clearly self-reflexive, Ha Jun feels so unified with his depiction of Kyung-man that it is hard to believe that they are actually two different entities. Ha Jun actualizes the absurd to be completely sensible in his desperation, so that the Kyung-man he plays seems less of a character than an everyday person.
The documentary-like feel of the film builds with its muted color scheme and still camerawork. On the scale of feature Korean family dramas, “Festival” hits closer to Yoon Dan-bi‘s “Moving On” (2019) than to Yoon Je-kyoon's epic tale “Ode to My Father” (2014). In comparison though, “Festival” revels in its extraordinarily short time frame. Its attentive focus on the emotional upheaval of a three-day funeral intensifies the intimacy (and pressure!) of each moment, allowing director Kim Lok-kyoung more breathing room for introspection. This proximity on raw psychology merits a film that feels so immersive that sometimes, one forgets that it is actually a work of fiction.
Overall, “Festival” is an exemplar of a small-budget cinema. Instead of ambitiously overshooting his budgetary capacity (as many independent directors are wont to do), Kim Lok-kyoung did a fantastic job working with what was available to him; after all, this feature was only shot in sixteen days and indeed, recruited real villagers for his birthday party extras. His stand-out debut is a surefire mark of his resourcefulness and shows promise as a potential new face in the face of Korean independent cinema.
